Iran rumors in oil trading world

A reliable source who does not want to be identified sent me this: "All anonymous if you decide to use this as usual. I don't want to make too big a deal of this as traders are notorious for blowing things out of proportion, but I heard the rumors below today regarding Iran. Given the silly statements coming out of Washington these days, this kind of stuff isn't surprising. If true, it would at minimum mean the US is trying to use the latest Iran uranium enrichment news to get other countries to cave in to accepting the unilateral US sanctions that they've resisted for years. And that Europeans are responding. US government supposedly telling oil companies that if they charter Iranian vessels from NITC () then the US government may seize their assets. If true, it's not an issue for US oil companies who haven't dealt with Iran for such things in many years. But rumor is that Total (French) and ENI (Italian) are staying away from these ships now. I don't follow shipping so closely, so don't know if that's been the case for a while or if it's a new development. The market rumor insinuates it's a new development. Final rumor is that some firms in Europe are telling their crude traders to close any short positions (bets that price will fall) for fear of rhetoric/potential conflict with Iran heating up.""